Heritage
A house, in its own words
The story of Marrakech Imperial begins with two creative partners whose lives intersected in the red‑sand alleys of Marrakech. Kenza Snoussi, an Italo‑Moroccan designer raised amid the city’s souks, met Massimo Di Nardo, an Italian‑Moroccan visual artist, during a collaborative art project in 2018. Their shared fascination with the sensory memory of Morocco’s imperial past led them to launch the first Moroccan haute parfumerie house in 2020. The founders announced the brand as a tribute to the legacy of Morocco’s historic capitals – Marrakech, Fez, Meknes and Rabat – and committed to a model that blends local craftsmanship with global perfume expertise. In 2021 the house debuted its inaugural collection at Milan’s Zhor Perfumery, a move that signaled its ambition to speak to an international audience while staying anchored in Moroccan tradition. By 2022 Marrakech Imperial entered the Spanish market through the 5th Essence Square boutique, expanding its footprint across the Mediterranean. The 2023 launch of a limited‑edition scent inspired by the Atlas Mountains earned a feature in Fragrantica’s “New Releases” roundup, highlighting the brand’s growing reputation among niche collectors. 2024 marked a prolific year, with seven new fragrances released, each accompanied by a short narrative that references specific Marrakech neighborhoods, historic palaces or local festivals. Throughout its brief history the house has maintained a partnership with Moroccan cooperatives that supply rose water from the Valley of Roses and oud from the Anti‑Atlas, ensuring that each bottle carries a tangible piece of the country’s terroir. The brand’s evolution reflects a deliberate balance: honoring ancestral techniques while embracing the openness of contemporary perfumery. Marrakech Imperial frames scent as a form of cultural storytelling. The founders describe their creative vision as an invitation to walk the streets of Marrakech through olfactory cues, rather than merely reproducing a scent profile. Authenticity guides every decision; the house sources raw materials directly from Moroccan growers who practice traditional harvesting methods, and it refuses to substitute synthetic analogues when a natural extract can convey the intended nuance. Sustainability underpins the sourcing strategy – rose petals are collected during the annual bloom in the Valley of Roses, and the oud used in Oud Kasbah Royal comes from trees cultivated in community‑run forests in the Anti‑Atlas. The brand also values transparency, publishing the origin of each key ingredient on its website and offering collectors insight into the perfumer’s notebook for each launch. While the house respects the heritage of Moroccan perfume, it deliberately opens its compositions to the broader perfume world, inviting collaborations with international perfumers and encouraging dialogue between East and West. This philosophy manifests in the way each fragrance is presented: a short narrative, a map of the inspiration point in Marrakech, and a suggestion to pair the scent with a local experience, such as sipping mint tea on a rooftop terrace.